If you are here for a poem dedicated to my wife of 27 years, you came to the wrong place. Brilliant click bait, though, wuddn’t it?

No, instead I need to put in a good word for honey in general. You know, bees and stuff? Following a few conversations with people the last two weeks who are struggling with allergies fairly dramatically this season, I thought I would share some insight. Common sense to most, yes, but I can speak from experience. So here is mine.

I’ve suffered from pollen-related issues a majority of my life. Some years are worse than others, but I can remember all the way back to elementary school when I’d be sick as a dog for 2 days-miss school-and then wake up feeling like a million bucks on day 3. As we know, flu doesn’t work like that, but I was 10 years old. Not only did I have no clue, but my mom didn’t either.

As an adult, I figured it out. After a few years in Savannah back at the turn of the century, we moved to Nashville. That Spring, I was ‘sick’ most of the time. I was pushing through it because I had a new job. It wasn’t until a friend asked “have you ever been tested for allergies?”

No, I hadn’t. And, frankly, I didn’t start then. I just dealt with it. Like a lot of people tend to do.

It wasn’t until we moved to El Paso, Texas that air quality began to realllly affect me. The dusty desert climate wasn’t doing me any favors. At all. I spent a lot of time just run down. I spent a ton of time being tested for this, that or the other. I even ended up with a spinal tap. 1 star. Do not recommend.

Fast forward to a little over a year ago right here on Hilton Head Island. I was there for the 2024 Seafood Festival. On Thursday of that week, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. The good news was, I knew enough about the yearly patterns to know that it was very likely allergies at this time of the year. So what do we do if we are too lazy or uninterested in a CVS run? Of course, you grin and bear it. Which I did. A few days later, I felt fine.

A few months later, and completely unrelated to all of this allergy stuff, I made a decision to start using honey as a sweetener for my morning coffee. The truth of the matter was, I read a report about artificial sweeteners and decided that I was going to take a shot at something natural as a sweetener. I watched my grandmother do it when I was a kid and I thought she was weird. But, as you know, it doesn’t get any more natural than honey.

So last Summer, I made my way through the cabinet for any honey that was already in the house. After I burned through those, I started buying local honey. It was a little more expensive, yes, but there was no way I was going to make a decision like this and then cut a corner on some el cheapo version.

I’m not here to endorse any particular product. Not at all. I’ve purchased local Georgia honey at Sam’s Club and I’ve purchased local honey at the farmer’s markets (fantastic selections by the way). What I am here to endorse is the use of honey to fight off the Spring and Fall time ‘cruds’ we like to walk around with while doing nothing about it. How can I be so sure?

This is my first late Winter season that I can remember that I haven’t had one SINGLE issue with pollen. I walked up on a yellow car the other day, so I know they are here. I’ve had multiple conversations with people who are feeling the pain I felt for many years. I’ve shared the story I just told you with each of them. All I can say is that I feel and have felt fantastic the last few weeks. I can’t even remember the last time I could say that during February.

I don’t have any secrets, I don’t have any proof. I just know what I’ve done differently and I know the result. I’m also not the first to tell you that consuming local honey is a good way to address allergies. Am I a doctor? Of course not. Is what I’ve just written a one-size-fits all? No on that count as well.

But what I do know is that if you haven’t tried it already, you most certainly should. How could you not Eat It and Like It? I sure did.

Meanwhile, my honey? I’m not exactly sure what she uses in her coffee.

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